Talk:Lebanon

The "American Committee on Jerusalem" used to carry some of these quotes (unfortunately, I've modified the wording of some of it!). Does anyone have proper citations for this material and, preferably, photographs of the pages of the original?

Remember, if you cite material like this, and it's also cited by Holocaust Deniers, you can be accused of "getting your views" from Holocaust Deniers! Good references are critical in this area.

(This is my first post here, I trust that using these short clips from books is within "Fair-Use")

http://www.acj.org/Daily%20News/2003/May/ (American Committee on Jerusalem)

........ it wasn't simply Palestine the Zionists wanted. In 1937, David Ben Gurion said, "The boundaries of Zionist aspirations are the concern of the Jewish people and no external factor will be able to limit them." In 1938, he was even more explicit, "The boundaries of Zionist aspiration," he told the World Council of Poale Zion in Tel Aviv, "include southern Lebanon, southern Syria, today's Jordan, all of Cis-Jordan [West Bank] and the Sinai" (cited by Israel Shahak, Journal of Palestine Studies).

Ten years later (ie 1948), Ben Gurion revealed his plan for the Arabs of the Middle East: "We should prepare to go over to the offensive," he told his General Staff. "Our aim is to smash Lebanon, Trans-Jordan, and Syria. The weak point is Lebanon, for the Moslem regime is artificial and easy for us to undermine. We shall establish a Christian state there, and then we will smash the Arab Legion, eliminate Trans-Jordan; Syria will fall to us. We then bomb and move on and take Port Said, Alexandria, and Sinai" (Michael Bar Zohar, Ben Gurion: A Biography).

While Ben Gurion's ambitious aims were not entirely realized, the Zionists and the newly created state of Israel did manage to force a huge number of Palestinians off the land where they had lived for centuries. "Between November 29, 1947, when the United Nations partitioned Palestine, and May 15, 1948, when the State was formally proclaimed, the Zionist army and militia had seized 75% of Palestine, forcing 780,000 Palestinians out of the country," writes Ralph Schoenman. Massacres of Palestinians at places such as Deir Yasin and Dueima by the IZL (Irgun) and Lehi (Stern Gang) and later the Israel Defense Forces resulted in "a maddened, uncontrollable stampede," according to Menachem Begin, the military commander of Irgun and eventually prime minister of Israel. "Of the 800,000 Arabs who lived on the present territory of the state of Israel, only some 165,000 are still there. The political and economic significance of this development can hardly be overestimated." MoshKat 05:30, 21 May 2007 (EDT)